It has been one whole year since the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton announced it’s closure due to lack of funding. Those first 24 hours contained a flurry of facebook messages and emails, people reaching out to each other and the creation of our first group emails under the name ChoixNBChoice.

This website quickly followed, allowing us to reach out to the general public for members and support. This collection of links (particularly a few of the blog posts) is a still a great resource for understanding the lack of access to abortion and reproductive healthcare in the Maritimes.

We’ve protested and sent letters, made phone calls and memes, had meetings with politicians and crowd funded a clinic. Thank you to everyone who showed up at rallies, contacted MPs, MLAs and Ministers, shared articles on social media and participated in twitter campaigns. Thank you to everyone who donated to what would become Clinic 554, everyone who voted prochoice in the provincial election, and every single person who has supported access and reproductive justice in New Brunswick.

Reproductive Justice New Brunswick continues to fight for the repeal of harmful restrictions to access and is dedicated to non-oppressive, gender inclusive care becoming the standard in NB and beyond. If you are interested in joining, contact RJNB though the link above (or on Facebook).

It’s better for patients to have access to a clinic, where people who are there want to be providing the service. People in hospitals are forced to be there; they have to perform the abortion, even if they’re anti-choice, and that can be acted out in punitive ways upon the patient. New Brunswick is also a small province — if you work in the hospital, where are you supposed to go if you don’t want everyone in the world to know you’re having an abortion?

Clinic 554 is not a place just to go when you’re desperate; it’s a place to go for a full range of reproductive health care, not just abortion, which is what the Morgentaler Clinic was providing. It came out of the desires of the community — to have a clinic centered on reproductive justice.

Until January 1, 2015, New Brunswick had been enforcing a restrictive abortion regulation for over 20 years, even though it was unconstitutional and created hardship for women and trans* people. The regulation required a patient to obtain written approval from two doctors who had to certify that the abortion was “medically necessary” before being allowed a funded abortion at a hospital.

It took the shocking closure of the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton, the province’s only abortion clinic, to finally spark change. Between the clinic’s April announcement and its July closure, a vibrant new reproductive rights movement sprung to life in New Brunswick. Its young activists campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness, and lobbied the government to repeal the regulation.

Right now, both hospitals that provide abortions in the province are managed by Vitalité Health Network: the Dr. Georges L Dumont Regional Hospital in Moncton and the Bathurst Chaleur Regional Hospital.

Spokesperson Luc Foulem said there is no plan to add to that number but what has changed is the way people can access the abortion clinics.

“Her first point of contact can be directly with our family planning clinics instead of going through a process of going through a family physician,” he said.

Foulem said the whole process from initial contact to having the procedure takes between two and three weeks.

He said it is premature for Vitalité to look at expanding the availability of the procedure.

“We don’t know at this point in time what our colleagues at Horizon Health Network will be doing, so there are a few too many variables at this point for us to justify making some infrastructure changes,” he said.

Join us for a rally at noon on Dec 3rd outside the Legislature on the first day that the Gallant government sits to:
– demand a repeal of Sec. 2.01 of the Medical Services Payment Act that does not allow public funding of abortions in clinics
– public funding for reproductive health services across NB
– reproductive justice now!

We will have music, posters, placards, chants, and speakers to show support for a future when all people can access the healthcare they need to thrive and decide if, when, and how to have or parent children, with dignity and support.

“In failing to apply reproductive health best practices by refusing to fund services outside of hospitals, New Brunswick continues to be in violation of the Canada Health Act,” says Jessi Taylor with RJNB.

“People are sometimes treated in a punitive way when they access abortions in some hospitals. There are also confidentiality problems when abortions are provided in a hospital,” says Taylor.

Her concerns are shared by the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians and Surgeons in their reaction to the news that more hospitals in New Brunswick may be doing abortions. They liken accessing the service in a hospital to going to an airport: “lots of people, no real privacy.”

Fredericton, NB, November 26, 2014 – Today’s announcement of the repeal of abortion restrictions in regulation 84-20 is an important first step in bringing the law of New Brunswick in line with the Canadian Constitution, the Charter and the Canada Health Act.

However, the removal of a legislative barrier does not necessarily guarantee access to abortion. From the announcement, it is apparent that access will still be restricted to a hospital. “In failing to apply reproductive health best practices by refusing to fund services outside of hospitals, New Brunswick continues to be in violation of the Canada Health Act. In addition, clinics are the most fiscally responsible model for a province with limited resources like New Brunswick” says RJNB spokesperson Jessi Taylor.

Gallant said the new regulation will no longer require two physicians to certify the procedure is medically necessary, effective on Jan. 1.

This will put reproductive health procedures in the same category as any insured medical procedure, according to the government.

“We have identified the barriers and are proceeding to eliminate them in order to respect our legal obligations under the Supreme Court of Canada ruling and the Canada Health Act regarding a woman’s* right to choose,” Gallant said in the statement.